This Is What A News Story Written By Robots Looks Like

Tuesday, The Associated Press announced it would begin automating its earnings reports, though it insisted no jobs were being replaced.

But, the firm the wire service has tapped to do the automating told BI Tuesday that it produced 300 million pieces of content last year, which is a bit more than what the average reporter is capable of.

Automated Insights, based in Durham, North Carolina, specializes in producing marketing, sales, and personalized financial reports through complex algorithms. Clients have included MSN and Yahoo, for which AI creates individualized fantasy football reports.

"You can apply the technology in many different fields where you're trying to tell stories about data," Automated Insights founder and CEO Robbie Allen said.

But there's also the churn rate. AP says AI's technology will allow it to produce thousands more reports per quarter than it currently creates. They sent us an example of what their reports will now look like:

The other content AI produces is pretty uncanny, and communications manager James Kotecki told us some clients choose to attach their own byline even if the report was automated. Here's an example of their personal finance report:

AI

Earlier this year, Oxford University researchers predicted there was a 99% chance "data entry keyers" would be automated and a 58% probability personal financial advisers would as well.

AP is the latest news outlet that's deploying robot reporters. In March, a computer wrote the LA Times' first run-through on a 4.7 quake that hit just a few miles from Westwood.

The wire service insisted no one's jobs were being taken.

"This is about using technology to free journalists to do more journalism and less data processing, not about eliminating jobs," AP vice president and managing editor Lou Ferrara said on its site. "In fact, most of the staff has been receptive to the effort and involved for the past few months of discussion."

That's the line BI also got from AI.

"We’ve never had an implementation where we replace jobs," Allen said.

AP previously worked with AI on a smaller project and is now an investor in the firm.